It's a good day: 'Dear Evan Hansen' is in Boston

By Iris Fanger, Correspondent

Friday

Jul 12, 2019 at 12:53 PMJul 15, 2019 at 1:24 PM

Wait a minute. Wasn’t high school supposed to be the time and place where you walked with your buddies talking about nothing, together watched the cheerleaders turning cartwheels on the football field, and proudly strutted into the senior prom? Or maybe that was just wishful thinking because you were stuck on the outside looking in.

“Dear Evan Hansen," the revelatory musical that won six 2017 Tony Awards and a 2018 Grammy and is still running on Broadway, has set down with its national touring company for a run at the Boston Opera House. I can guarantee that whether you are a teenager or not, or even if your memories of those four years have dimmed, you cannot help but be moved.

The musical turns on the fate of Evan Hansen (Ben Levi Ross, superb) and Connor Murphy (Marrick Smith, fine in the dual roles of high school misfit and later imaginary friend), unsure of any identity in the tight-knit circle at school. Classmates in their senior year, they could not be more different in their loneliness and inability to function in a world that seems closed to them. Both products of broken families, Evan has curled into himself, sitting cross-legged on his bed, only communicating with his computer. At the command of his therapist, he writes himself pep-talk letters, as proof that today will be a better day. Connor, who desperately wants his family to take notice of him, takes drugs, lashes out, and ultimately commits suicide, which drives the action on stage.

Through a series of misunderstood events, as if following the 19th century format of the “well-made play,” one of Evan’s letters turns up in Connor’s pocket, suggesting the boys were friends. Seeing how desperately the Murphy family needs some evidence of a normal relationship for their son, Evan continues to embellish the lies. His secret love interest, Connor’s sister, Zoe, reaches out to him, and Evan becomes a hero at school after making a speech (in song) that “No one deserves to be forgotten.” The speech goes viral, a reminder of the results of living in a digital age.

By Act II, the truth comes out in devastating ways, but the less-than-happy ending is well handled by the team of Steven Levenson (book) and Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (music and lyrics). There were many in the packed audience wiping their eyes as they left the theater at press opening night on Thursday.

Under the spot-on direction of Michael Greif, the musical never lets up in intensity, performed by a first-class cast of only eight actor-singers, led by Ross in a tour-de-force characterization that’s guaranteed to make his career. He’s in the spotlight for most of the show, by turns scared, funny, endearing, and frightening in his neediness. Endowed with a believable physicality, he transforms from curling his body into a defensive fetal position, embellished by gestures as familiar as wiping his sweaty hands on his pants before touching anyone, to standing tall to declare that “Nobody deserves to be forgotten.” The song is as much an anthem of hope for himself as for the memory of Connor. (Note: the role of Evan will be played by Stephen Christopher Anthony at the matinee performances).

Jessica Phillips as Evans’s mother, raising her son by herself, and Christiane Noll and Aaron Lazar as Connor’s clueless parents, are also memorable, along with Phoebe Koyabe as Alana Beck who joins the bandwagon of FOC (friends of Connor), Jared Goldsmith as Jared Kleinman, the smart aleck sort-of friend, and especially, the affecting Maggie McKenna as Zoe Murphy.

The whole of the production is wrapped in an ever-blinking, ever-changing series of projections (scenic design by David Korins, projections by Peter Nigrini, lighting by Japhy Weideman) as if the computer was spitting out another character on stage. The eight-piece orchestra is placed barely in sight, above the stage.

The dual themes of teenagers adrift in an alien world, and parents unable to find their way to truly see and hear them, make “Dear Evan Hansen” a don’t- miss, universal experience for everyone. Have no doubts. Even though a show seldom lives up to its hype, this one does.